DREW SHARP: Blame Lloyd Carr; Michigan needs fresh voice soon

If Lloyd Carr wasn't seriously thinking about retirement following this season, he should start now.

There's no justification for a debacle of such historic proportions. This was bad coaching. It was bad preparation. It was bad reaction.

It would be much easier simply writing off Appalachian State's mind-blowing 34-32 stunner as a once-in-a-millennium fluke if we hadn't grown accustomed to watching athletic opposing quarterbacks frequently turn Michigan into a confused, clueless mess.

This one sticks to Carr. It becomes as much a part of his legacy as claiming a share of the national championship in 1997.

There is no precedent for what unraveled in the Big House Saturday afternoon. No Division I-AA school had ever defeated an Associated Press Top 25-ranked team. You're stuck trying to find a parallel elsewhere in sports history.

It was a wild, crazy finish. If you didn't see it -- and unless you had DirecTV, you didn't -- and just looked at the final frantic moments, you would assume that fate simply smiled down on the hopeless underdog.

But Appalachian State controlled the entire game.

That's inexcusable when you have at your disposal a four-year starter at quarterback and running back, a plethora of playmaking receivers and a sun-blocking future NFL left tackle protecting your passer's blind side.

Where was this great offense?

Defensive coordinator Ron English will become the convenient scapegoat. In just his last three games, he's gone from the future U-M head-coaching fast track to possibly interviewing realtors and warming up his résumé come winter.

But the Wolverines' patent inability to contain athletic quarterbacks was a problem long before English arrived.

Michigan still hasn't caught up to Donovan McNabb from nine years ago, when Syracuse rolled into Michigan Stadium and rolled over the Wolverines.

The M.O. was the same Saturday as it was then.

This reflects on Carr. Why is there such a strategic mental block when it comes to containing athletic quarterbacks? You would think, eventually, an answer would reveal itself. And if it hasn't yet, then perhaps the time has come to bring in a head coach that fully understands that the playmaking quarterbacks of today's college football aren't necessarily the lead-footed pocket purveyors of 20 years ago.

This loss doesn't negate all the positives of Carr's days at Michigan, but it once again offers a telling perspective that the powers-that-be at Michigan can't deny -- a fresh voice is needed much sooner than later.

The happiest people were the Big Ten Network honchos.

This game was exclusively a Big Ten Network broadcast. It was unavailable to Comcast cable subscribers, as the two sides remain embroiled in a petty battle of the greedy. If the Big Ten was looking for the trigger to inspire a peasant attack on the Comcast castle with pitchforks and burning torches, this might do it.

But the angriest protesters might make a brief pit stop -- marching first to athletic director Bill Martin's doorstep.